Ark Effect
by EclipsePheniox
Summary: After 2 years after Janes death, the Normandy SR-2 crew is sent to the ark not only to find her but a mystery on their hands.
1. Chapter 1

**Please note that this story is experimental and it may not continue or be updated on a regular basis. Any help will be appreciated.**

The Normandy came out of FTL and started to drift in a system.

"Disengaging FTL drives," Joker announced as the Normandy dropped out of FTL. "Emissions sink active. Board is green, we are running silent."

"We're wasting our time," Pressley dismissed while looking over operations reports. "Four days searching up and down this sector and we haven't found any evidence of Geth activity."

"Three ships went missing here in the past month," Joker reminded him. "Something happened to them."

"My money's on slavers. The Terminus system is crawling with them." the comms officer said looking at the screens.

"Picking up something on the long range scanner," one of the co-pilots notified the two, she looked at the LADAR trying to examine what has been detected. "Unidentified vessel. Hmm... Looks like a cruiser."

"Doesn't match any known signatures," Joker observed.

In the distance a vessel appeared from the glare from the planet's horizon.

"Cruiser is changing course," she said. "Now on intercept trajectory."

"Can't be!" Pressley argued as he turned to look at the screens. "Stealth systems are engaged. There's no way a get ship could possibly-"

"It's not the Geth!" Joker gasped. "Brace for evasive manoeuvres!"

The cannon of the unsymmetrical, organic-like vessel charged up in a yellow light. The cannon fired as the Normandy tried evading the particle beam but the left engine was hit by the attack. Inside several explosions went off from the attack. Pressley's console exploded instantly killing him.

"Pressley!" the co-pilot screamed as she tried to get up but her console exploded killing her as well as starting several fires burned in the cockpit.

"Kinetic barriers are down!" Joker read off the warnings to the other co-pilot as he ran through the controls to respond to the damage and to evade the attacks. "Multiple hull breaches. Weapons off-line. Somebody get that fire out!"

Down below the decks, Shepard rushed out of her quarters. She ran to the back of the sleeping pod area and checked the ship's status as she placed his helmet on. Liara came up behind her with armour and helmet on.

"Jane!" Liara called to get his attention. "Will the Alliance here in time?"

Jane's helmet hissed as the seals clamped down. "The Alliance won't abandon us. We just need to hold on." she picked up a fire extinguisher and started putting out one of the many fires that were blazing. "Get everyone on the escape shuttles."

"Joker is still in the cockpit and you're here," she argued. "If you and him not leaving, neither am I."

A small explosion went off which caused him to stumble towards her. "I need you to make sure the crew gets out in the escape pods. I'll take care of Joker and get out."

"Jane." the Asari said.

"Liara go, now." the commander said slowly.

"Aye, aye." she said before moving off as Jane activated the ship's fire suppressant systems while Liara went to help the crew escape.

She caught up to a group of crew members evacuating and stood outside of the escape pod and waved them to get in. "Everyone get in. Go, go, go!" she said as Chakwas and several others jumped into the pod.

One crew member tried to make a run for the pod, but an explosion went off sending her into the wall. The impact broke her back and neck killing her. she shook her head and went inside the pod. She activated the pod and launched out.

Jane felt the ship shake. There was no one left on the ship to save except for Joker. It was time to abandon ship. She turned and moved to reach the cockpit. 

She walked through the mass effect field that kept the cockpit pressurized. She rushed to Joker. "Joker, we need to get out of here!"

Joker was wearing his emergency space mask to provide him with oxygen in a vacuum. "No! I won't abandon the Normandy. I can still save her!"

"The Normandy is lost, Joker. There's no use in going down with the ship."

Joker sighed. "Yeah, okay. Help me get out of here." As Jane lifted Joker out of the chair, Joker noticed the proximity alarm. "Look out they're making another pass!"

The cruiser fired its beam at the Normandy which annihilated much of the top deck and the CIC. It was now or never for getting off of the Normandy. Shepard roughly grabbed Joker's arm almost breaking it.

"Ow! Watch the arm!"

Jane moved Joker towards the escape pod and got him inside. The Normandy broke apart making her footing unstable. Shepard was launched back towards the wall. She grabbed the corner and held himself to the ground. The vessel's beam weapon was between her and the escape pod. There was no way for her to reach it.

"Commander!" Joker called out to him.

The ship shook making her loose his footing again. Just before she floated away, Jane punched the escape pod panel allowing it to launch.

"Shepard!" Joker screamed before the doors closed in front of him.

An explosion went off sending her into a wall making her feel many of her bones break from the impact. She couldn't feel his legs, her back must have broken. She flung out of the Normandy like a rag doll. The cruiser fired one last beam ensuring the Normandy exploded completely. Jane watched as her ship was destroyed and the cruiser, that did it, quickly escaped using FTL. She began to panic as her oxygen began to leak, twisting and turning trying to fix it but her air went as she started to enter the atmosphere.

She felt tired and her eyes slowly closed as a bright light flashed in her eyes. Warmth, that's what she felt first, warmth like she was at the beach with her mother. Smiling she turned to look up at the blue sky and white clouds. Was this heaven? If it was she hit the jackpot, but as her eyes adjusted to the sky something flew overhead. It hard a large wingspan and short legs. It looked nothing like an angel, so what was it?

Stretching she sat up and looked to see an ocean in front of her. She then turned and what she saw made her thoughts of her being in heaven fade quickly. Laying nearby was a large dead fish of some kind. She intimidately got up and approached it. Gulping she reached her hand out and touched it, it was cold to the touch as well as leathery. This was most definitely not heaven.

She looked around and saw something that made her freeze. A live brontosaurs was nearby eating leaves off some of the trees. This was something she never expected to see in her life. These things were meant to be dead yet here it was alive and eating leaves. This, this was just impossible. She then looked down at herself, at least someone had the decency to cover her but then her eyes turned to something impeded in her wrist. It was a diamond shaped object, almost instinctively tired to scratch it out but it was stuck into her skin.

"Where in the hell am I?" she asked.

OOOOO

The Illusive man just looked at Miranda with an unimpressed look.

"What do you mean you cannot find her body?" he asked.

"I'm sorry sir but there is no sign of her body, we can only find the Normandy and a few bodies but none of them are Shepard's." Miranda said with her face covered by a helmet. "We have looked practically everywhere for her but found nothing. We knew this was a possibility but it's likely her body got burned up during re-entry."

TIM sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ok fine, Miranda when the Normandy SR-2 is ready I'm ordering you get the crew and take the mission on."

"Yes sir."

OOOOO 2 years later.

The attack on the Collector base was flawed from the beginning. Miranda was good and all but she was no expert or military leader. The Normandy came in too fast and was hit by several orbs and debris hit the ship and sent it flying into more wrecks of ships. The alarms blared out and the crew headed towards the escape pods.

As they got in the ship began to tear itself apart, all Miranda could do was look as the ship as it tore itself apart. A light blinded her and the next moment she felt warmth all over her body. Her eyes opened and she found herself staring at a dodo. Her eyes widened as the formally extinct bird waddled by.

"That's impossible." she said as she stood and looked around and could see several extinct animals.

"Need some help here!" someone called.

Miranda turned to see Kelly pulling Joker out of the water. She ran over to help and the two of them pulled Joker out of the water.

"Hey, you ok?" Kelly asked.

Joker coughed up some sea water before speaking. "I'm fine."

"AHHHHHH WHERE'S MY SUIT?" someone screamed.

The three turned to see Tali no longer in her suit. She had purple skin and long black hair. She almost looked like an asari, almost. She began to look everywhere in search of her suit before Garrus moved up to her.

"Tali, shouldn't you be ill right now?" he asked.

She stopped, he was right. Without her suit she should have fallen ill already but something was off. She felt fine, nothing was wrong.

"P.. probably some form of genetic manipulation." she reasoned.

"Probably." Garrus agreed.

Almost the entire crew had washed up on shore. The only ones who where not there where the ones who handled the minor operations of the ship.

"Is this some kind of Jurassic park place?" Donnelly asked.

"Not a clue." Ashley said as she looked around. "This just seems wrong."

As the rest of the crew talked Miranda just stood in silence. This place was wrong, half of the animals she had already seen did not exist with each other at the same time on earth. That just screamed something at her but what she had no idea. Her mind just buzzed with possibilities before someone said something.

"Err guy's, is it just me or is that a castle?" Joker asked pointing.

Eyes turned to see a structure up the hill. It was made out of tones for the most part but with three windmills nearby and a large cylindrical structure beside it. They looked to each other.

"Best place to find someone." Garrus said making Miranda nod.

"Ok, Ash, Liara, Garrus grab something and follow me. The rest of you stay here and protect each other." she said earning nods from the others.

Ash, Miranda, Garrus and Miranda grabbed a stick each and moved up towards the building fast and low. While it was up a hill the place was on some flatland making it easier to move to. As they moved up they found to be what looked like zebra horse hybrids in a pen eating something as well as several other dinosaurs in pens.

"This looks like a farm." Liara said.

"Yeah but who for?" Miranda asked before she moved forward.

The area was set up to be a mix of homely and utilitarian. This was a place for someone to work and live, but who that was the question. The four then moved around separately to see if anyone was living here. As they moved someone had their eyes on them with a spear in hand. As Liara walked into the main building a loud cry echoed making the four turn to see at least 5 people run down a hill towards them brandishing spears in hands.

The four of them got ready to fight with their sticks before someone riding a raptor come in fast. Three shots echoed and two of the people died. The rider then jumped off the raptor and then began to fight two of them with a pike while the raptor tore into the final combatant and began to eat him. The rider however used the pike as if it was a part of their body ans swiftly killed the final two. Once all of them were dead the rider turned to them.

The rider wore a metal breastplate with a fur hood and trousers. An old gunpowder rifle was slung over their shoulder with a sickle, axe and pickaxe attached to their belt. The rider and raptor walked up to Miranda and the rider took her hood off.

Standing in front of her was a woman with long dark red hair, freckles, a few scars and an eyepatch over her left eye.

"Who are you?" she asked with an aggressive tone.

"Miranda Lawson, who are you?" Miranda asked but before the woman could say Liara spoke up.

"Jane?" she asked making the woman turn to see the young blue asari.

"Liara?" she said dropping her pike.


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone fell silent as Jane and Liara looked at each other. A moment later Jane walked up to the Asari and touched her cheek making her back up a bit before Jane throwing her arms around the blue alien.

"Liara it really is you!" she cried as she relaxed.

Liara followed suit and cried herself as she took a hold of Jane and the two fell to their knees. Two years of bottled up emotion was released in just a few seconds.

"It's been so long, I gave up hope of ever seeing you again!" Jane said.

"And I though you died." Liara said.

The stayed like that for a few moments before braking.

"It's been so long but what are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing, where are we?"

With that Jane turned to see Ash and Garrus behind her. "You didn't come to find me?"

"We thought you were dead Shepard." Garrus said.

Jane hung her head and nodded slightly before standing.

"Are there any more of you?"

OOOOO

Tali just sat down in a ball shaking worrying about the lack of her suit. Samara sat next to her to try an ease her stress but in truth she didn't know how. This was not normal, not matter how she looked at it. Jacob, Zaeed and Thane grabbed a few rocks and sticks and began to make rudimentary spears. Grunt kept a look out while Kasumi and Mordin looked around at the flora and fauna. Jack however just sat on her own muttering to herself.

Chackwas was attending to Joker legs to see if they were broken with the help of Kelly. The rest of the crew just admired the scenery.

"Ahh." Joker cried out.

"Oh don't be like I hardly touched you." Chackwas said.

"Yeah, maybe but I feel very, very sore." Joker complained.

"Just hold still." Kelly said as she helped support him.

"If only my omni-tool worked..." she muttered but then she stopped and a thought came to mind. "Jacob!" she yelled making him turn to her.

"Yeah." he yelled back.

"Have you tried using your biotics yet?" she asked which got all eyes turning to the former alliance marine.

He looked at his hand then looked to a small rock close by. Something simple, he raised his hand and focused on raising the rock but nothing happened. He tried again but still nothing, he looked to the doctor and shrugged.

"Samara, if you'll please."

The old asari nodded and looked to a rock and focused to lift it. But once again nothing happened.

"It appears that our biotics are not working." she said making eyes widen but before anyone else could say anything a roar sounded making eyes turn to see a dinosaur running towards them. It had a square head and stood around two people high.

"What's that?" Tali yelled out.

"CARNOTAURUS!" Karin yelled. "IT'S CARNIVOROUS!"

With that those who where the closest got up and ran. Grunt, Jacob and Zaeed however got ready to fight it with their spears. As it got close however a raptor came from a ledge and jumped pressing it's claws into it's neck and biting it making it yell out in pain. The beast then grabbed onto the raptor and threw it off. The beast landed in the sand and began to growl at it but before it could comp on the helpless raptor a metal pike was thrown and landed in it's belly making it roar.

A woman in metal armour and fur clothing then jumped on the ledge and grabbed onto the beast with a sword in hand. She then began to hack at the beast, but it wasn't to damage of it it was to get a better grip as she pulled herself up to it's head then drove the sword into it's head and to the brain killing it. It then fell to the floor and she rolled off it. The raptor then got up and walked over to the woman and she stroked it like a pet.

"Is she..." Kelly asked. "Petting a raptor?"

"Indeed she is." Jacob said as the woman got some rope and threw it over the best.

The woman then looked to the others and walked over to them. "So, you lot the Normandy crew?"

Eyes went wide as soon as she said that. "Who are you?" Jacob asked.

"I'm Commander Jane Shepard." she said.

OOOOO

The crew arrived at Shepard's farm with a carnosaurs behind them much to the surprise of the other four.

"A carnotarus? Really?" Miranda asked.

"Yep, good food. And I need the hide." Jane said.

"For what?"

"All of you. I mean a wrap and loincloth looks sexy on all of you, but it gets colder at times here." Jane said as she removed a chunk of meat from the beast. "There we go, Miranda there's a large metal pot inside the house, could you grab it please."

The Cerberus operative was about to complain but decided against it and walked inside the stone building. She saw the pot to the side next to a shelving unit with other stuff on it. Grabbing it she then walked outside and set it on a wood pile. Jane then came over and dropped the meat into the pot. She then grabbed a bucket and dropped water into it with a few slices of veg before getting down and setting the pile on fire.

"There we go, now this is going to take a few hours allow me to answer a few questions that I think you may have. No I have no idea how I got here, yes I am alive, no I don't know where we are, yes I know there's dinosaurs and no I have no idea what they are doing here. Now, ask freely if you please." she said as she sat down on the floor.

The crew looked at each other before Liara spoke up. "How did you lose your eye?"

"I fought a T-rex barehanded first week I got here. Biggest mistake I could have made. Used what I could to take it down and got a few scars from that, but my eye was that bastard took before I took his life, and meat."

"You fought a T-rex?" Ash asked in an amused tone as if she didn't belief her commander.

"Yep, among other things." Jane sad as more questions were asked, few of which fully explained what was happening.

The lack of Tali's suit turned out to be for some kind of genetic enhancement, biotics didn't work due to some kind of suppression field. The same thing was for advanced tech like omni-tools, they just wouldn't work. While Jane is an engineer by trade, this was one of those things were she couldn't figure out what was going on and she hated that. The crew just looked to one another with even more questions, the ones she answered didn't answer much.

"So what are you doing here, I mean near the beach?" Chakwas asked.

"Well, this area is a good place for hunting and farming. Most of the equipment I need require, metal, stone and chitin. The area we are in is a good spot for it, not to mention that I sell a few things to traders when they come by." Jane answered. "That reminds me, there's a few groups out there that you need to be aware of."

"Groups?" Miranda asked.

"More like tribes, that's the general term used for them. I'm not a member of any tribe, I'm a bit of a lone wolf but I do trade with the more friendly ones. The main ones that are out of there are the Kingdom of the stone to the west, Sand scorpions to the south and the Shark divers to the south west. There are other tribes in-between them but those ones are the most powerful. The Sand scorpions however have it in for me as I killed their champion in combat." she said with a bit of a smile.

At that moment the raptor growled.

"Yeah yeah." she said as she got up and walked over to a refrigerator opened it and took some meat out.

She then threw it over to her raptor who jumped and ate it.

"Life's been hard here, tiring and everything. People getting eaten by cannibals and dinos. And people still don't know what the fuck this place even is!" she sat down and looked at each of them. "If you guy's want to survive, you have to do what I say. I know this place like the back of my hand, so listen and live. Can we all deal with that?"

The crew nodded explicitly the SR 1 crew, but as they did Miranda spoke up.

"Are there any other islands?" she asked.

"Yes, this particular one is called Ragnarök. Don't ask about the name, other then this one there's one called the 'island' which is pretty basic from what I heard. Then there's 'the Center' which has this floating mountain in the middle. The final one is this big and I mean big desert called 'Scorched earth'. Then there are other islands but those are the main ones. I went to at least Scorched earth and nearly baked before coming back, I was… well I'll prepared for said that adventure."

"I think that's all the questions we have." Chackwas said.

"Ok then, well foods ready." Jane said as she stood and opened the pot. "Ummmm."

She picked up a bowl and poured some soup in and handed it to Miranda.

OOOOO

Once everyone was full night time soon came. Jane was not prepared for so many people to arrive so some of them had to deal with sleeping on the floor. In her room Jane removed her armour and clothing as Liara walked in. As the human turned the Asari got a good lock at her lover. Jane's body looked like it had been through the meat grinder more then once.

Her body was muscular before but now it was like she was a body builder with scars all across her body. Scratches and bite marks where all across he body each one had a story to tell. Those two years had clearly not been kind to her.

"Liara." Jane muttered with a blush.

"Jane, your body…." Liara said also blushing.

"I know, I look disgusting with all of these but you don't get energy shields here."

"I guess but I came you see how you are."

Jane nodded and pointed to the bed and the two of them sat down on it.

"Like I said before, it's not been easy. Been here for two years, thing's just keep getting worse and not better. I keep telling myself that it will but it never does. And I've been well unfaithful to you."

Liara just stared at Jane as she said that before looking down. She didn't know what to think, after all she thought that Jane was dead for 2 years. Was she justified because she felt alone?

"I'm sorry." Jane said as her emotions started to flood to her. "I was just so desperate for some company, and someone to love I just."

Her hands hid her face and tears as she cried out. Liara looked to her and was going to touch her but she also felt betrayed, she thought she was the only one for Shepard but now with this… was it because of her? So many questions entered her head as Jane stood.

"You can have my bed for the night." she said as she walked out crying her eyes out.

Liara did the same as she lay on the bed and began to cry as well. There were so many things wrong about this whole thing, but this bombshell made it worse. Jane walked outside and slept with her pet raptor who licked her as she fell asleep on him. He nuged her before falling asleep as well.


End file.
